Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Magic Candle: Re-Lit

I've accomplished so little in The Magic Candle that I probably shouldn't even be posting, but I wanted to assure you that, having come down from the height of my business season, I am still playing.

When I returned to the game, I could remember so little that I thought it would be best if I stated over. Also, I had The Book of Flame and Wax that I wanted to populate with notes from the characters in the Royal Castle and Port Azur. I'm actually glad that I restarted because I found a bunch more characters. I made about six loops through the Royal Castle and encountered different people each time. Some of them appear for only very short time frames.

Depending on the time of day, there might be 0, 1, 3, or 12 people in this room. Unlike Ultima V, they can't be found elsewhere when they're gone; they just disappear.

In restarting, I also did something kind of lame: I chose the easy mode. I had been following your conversation in my last posting, and it appears that the mode only affects the number of days you have to complete the main quest. Since it is my wont to explore and exhaustively document things--for both myself and my readers--I felt I was justified in giving myself the most time possible. Later, I encountered a woman in the castle who promised me an extra 60 days in an emergency:

I assume this is a one-time offer, or it would render the time limit useless.

After revisiting the two towns, I have a long "to do" list and a few mysteries. The major mystery involves a dungeon called Meardom, which is said to lie beneath the Royal Castle. I read about it in the Port Avur library. The previous king, Ongar, had a son named Aslan (current-king Rebnard's older brother) who wandered down there and was killed by gnolls. In response, Ongar had the dungeon sealed and made everyone swear an oath not to speak of it. Ongar's brother Banas apparently decided I needed to know about it because he gave me just enough to ask the right questions in Port Avur without betraying his oath. The problem is, I don't know what to do with any of this. I've asked every NPC I can find about MEARDOM and ASLAN and no one wants to tell me anything. Wandering around the lowest explorable level of the castle doesn't seem to produce a dungeon. Maybe I'll find something later.

The second mystery has to do with the queen, Rebnard's wife. I haven't been able to find her. I've heard from her servants that she's in a foul mood and unhealthy, but I don't see her anywhere.

The final mystery has to do with a servant in the castle named Beratt. He's rumored to be hiding a secret. There are whispers that some of the servants are spies. Unfortunately, he won't speak to me until I visit a halfling trainer and increase my charisma.

Awfully haughty for a servant.

My to do list has most of its items in Soldain, a dwarven town just south of where I am now, and Keof, an island town to which I need to take a ship's passage from Port Avur. The items involve asking different NPCs about different bits of game lore, including one monk who knows something about the vault holding the Zirvanad, the document I need to find that explains how to refresh the Magic Candle. I thought I'd go to the place I can walk first (Soldain), using the experience to learn a bit about overland travel. I have to burn a day hanging around Port Avur, though, because apparently you can't just buy armor like you can buy weapons; you have to wait a day or so for the armorsmith to make it.

I'm still in that stage of the game where I'm confused by many things and uncertain about the best logistical tactics, such as how much food, how many arrows, and how many mushrooms I should carry (especially since, other than Port Avur, I don't know where to buy them), the best way to allocate training funds, and how many bits of equipment I should buy. I got a blanket for everyone, but do I need more than one rope, shovel, or pick?

Does this mean I'll need multiple picks but just one shovel?

I did cast my first spell, giving an energy boost to Giauz after he'd been wandering around talking to people all night. Since I realized belatedly that every spell drains energy from the spellcaster, I'm probably better off just eating a Sermin mushroom, which seems to be cheap and accomplishes the same thing.

Why, Giauz gets an energy boost!

Just like the last time I started, I've had one battle against orcs on the road. I'm looking forward to exploring the combat a bit more, as it seems to have something of the tactical complexity of the Ultima series. Even this brief introductory combat took a long time, though, and I've heard rumors of 30+ minute combats in this game. Right now, my wizard has nothing to do; none of his spells are offensive. I have notes on where to buy other spellbooks.

Eflun just hangs back and watches. He's good for other stuff.

Sorry for the short posting, but I plan to invest some serious hours tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. In the meantime, if you see anything obvious I'm doing wrong at the introductory stages, please let me know.

36 comments:

Jebus, I'm so close to firing it up and giving it a go but a small voice in my head tells me I'll only love it for a few hours. I think that I would prefer to do this one vicariously and enjoy your fond memories instead. :)

You need more than one rope and one pick, but I don't think you need more than one shovel.

The game has some red herrings (or else I never figured some things out) and some things mentioned early don't come into play for a very long time.

The combat is more tactical and more fun than the Ultima games, IMO. Don't forget that both monsters and your own characters can sidestep if they there is room on both their sides. So a "sandwiched" enemy is a sitting duck. And you can improve chances of hitting with bows if there are several enemies on the same line.

The enemies cheat, though. They can move diagonally, while your poor sods can only move horizontally or diagonally.

I was looking at the screenshots and... please tell me you're not playing the game on the native 320x200 resolution.

If so, here's a suggestion, assuming you're using DOSBox: set the game window to your monitor resolution (or as close as you want), and set your scaling to hq3x. The game will look very very good without big pixels.If you use the D-Fend frontend, it gets even easier to configure.

Pedro, I tried your suggestions. I really would prefer to play on a slightly higher resolution. But no matter what I do, the image looks screwed up. Right now, the resoultion I use fits almost perfectly in a quarter of my laptop's screen, allowing me to arrange my map and notepad around it.

The correct aspect ratio is in fact 4:3, i.e. not what is seen in the screenshots on this blog. 320x200 gives a 16:10 ratio, but on an old, low-res display, that would have been stretched to the standard 4:3. This made pixels taller than they were wide, with the idea being that text was more readable that way.

Anon: Well, you also have the problem that pixels aren't square anymore, so you'd want to use some algorithem to make them larger and more square anyway:normal2x or normal3x just make each original pixel into 4 or 9 pixels so you will get the same art, just bigger. It may actually look more like the original art, since pixels are far smaller today then originally.

There are also 'scan' and 'tv' which add black lines to simulate playing it on an old scanning monitor or tv.

rgb apparently uses the smaller pixels today to simulate a dot trio on an old CRT; no idea what it looks like.

So those are all to make the game look MORE like it did originally, without you having to squint at it in a tiny box. Probably not a problem on Chet's laptop, but I have a 23" 1600x900 monitor. Sprites made of pixils for a 14" 800x600 (or even 480x360) monitor just aren't going to look the same.

Now, yes, advmame2x | advmame3x | advinterp2x | advinterp3x | 2xsai | super2xsai | supereagle | hq2x | hq3x are all designed to make things look less blocky on modern monitors. They do this by blending things into one another as they scale the image up. I advise people to try each one, as they will remove effects that you wouldn't get on a 14" CRT anyway. Which one is best is purely asthetic choice, and may very well be different from game to game due to the art changing.

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this conversation, but just to be clear: These games are actually intended to be stretched. The unstretched screenshots are the wrong aspect ratio. 320 x 200 is not 320 x 240 (what you would need to get 4:3). So those 200 vertical pixels are supposed to be stretched.

GOG has 24h Gem Promo for "To The Moon". Regardless looking like JRPG is more adventure than RPG, but don't care - It's still wonderful little indie game worth experiencing.

And speaking of indie games, there's lot of nice sales going on - Humble Bundle has set up "Humble Indie Bundle 6" and Indie Royale "Back To School Bundle", not to forget Gamersgate's "IndieFort Championship".

I too am new to the game (been playing a week) and I'm a bit farther than you. Here are a few things I figured out thru trial and error:

1. When battle starts, move all your guys into place and draw their weapons and recall any spells you may want to use. Then hit BEGIN. Took me a while to figure this out. Also, I've found that Eflun is actually a pretty good fighter, get him a short sword. It never hurts.

2. MAGIC SHIELD is a crucial spell, memorize a lot of them. Cast it on each player... essentially it protects against Zorlims/Jerrahs (and other magic users) attacks. It lasts until it gets blasted away, its not just there for battle. There is physical damage and magic damage in this game.

(Example: If MIN has a magic shield of 75 and a Zorlim blasts him for 25 points damage, his magic shield will be down to 50, but his energy and stamina will NOT be affected. You can cast Magic shield over another magic shield spell for each guy up to 99).

3. I picked Ziyx as opposed to a halfling. There are TOUGH battles and I can't see the halfling really helping. At first I couldn't really talk to anybody, but I found where I can raise my charisma in another town - after fighting at least 7 tough combats to get there! Ziyx's SHATTER spell is imperative I've found, especially for magic casters that are all the way across the screen.

4. Watch the wear and tear (W-T) on Nehor's bow. Mine breaks A LOT. Get him a short sword too for when this happens so he doesn't just stand around doing nothing. Also, have other guys carry arrows that they can transfer to him when he runs out, as he can only carry 99.

5. So far I've mainly used Sermin and Gonshi mushrooms, and A LOT of them. Don't run out of these. I haven't really tested Luffins, Migrets, Nifts or Drelins yet.

6. When camping outside, have one person WATCH. Being ambushed really really sucks.

I haven't done anything with picks or shovels yet. I did buy a rope and I suspect that more than 1 rope will be needed. I also bought blankets, not really sure if they've helped me or not?

I'll let you know of any other "tips" I encounter thru trial and error, which is mostly what my game has been. I've fought about 20-25 battles so far tho, so I'm getting better. Glad you're back at it...

4. After battle you may want to set up camp to repair weapons. IIRC Sakar is excellent at repairing stuff. The mage(s) will also have time to memorize a spell or two, while Nehor hunts for food and the one remaining guy with most stamina stands guard.

All this talk about Magic Candle has tempted me to make another go at Magic Candle 2. I didn't like the even larger, emptier city (lots of permanently unoccupied buidlings)and even harder to find NPCs in that game. The first game was more "compact" in this regard.

I'm grateful for the tips. I assumed the magic shield spell was just for a single battle, so that is MUCH appreciated.

I like having Min around for role-playing reasons, but I'll se how tough the battles get. I bought him a bow, and he's scored a few hits, so it's not like he's completely useless. Also, he's the only guy I have who can work a trade.

I thought I stocked up pretty well, but I still had a lot of gold left over, so I figured why not spend it. I went back to Port Avur and loaded up on mushrooms, food, and arrows just like you suggested.

I am currently fighting a "fixed attack" right now and I used some Nifts before going into battle. They do indeed protect your player for 3 rounds from physical attack. You can't eat two Nifts and expect to be protected for 6 rounds though. Also, for difficult battles it is good to use a Mirget and a Luffin in conjunction with each other. The Migret will give you super strength (max out your damage on your weapon) and the Luffin will ensure you land a blow so you haven't wasted your Mirget.

Also, remember that you can play your guy's turns out of order, i.e. have Min go first and then Nehor and then your Hero... simply press their corresponding number when it's your turn and you can mix it up. This has saved me a few times with being able to cast an ENERGY or MAGIC SHIELD just when I needed it.

Excellent idea giving MIN a bow... perhaps give him some archery classes too. I was thinking about buying my hero a Brom Bow... some of these battles it takes too long to trek across the battlefield. (Perhaps a Gonshi mushroom helps this?) Either way, I've found that when fighting Cyclops (and some other projectile throwing monsters), they rarely are able to avoid an arrow and you need to take them out quickly because they throw LARGE rocks that do huge damage.

I am currently in the city of Delkona and finally got my wizards Steel Plate armor, which may be a first. Wizards (or mages/clerics/bishops etc.) generally can't wear anything but robes. There seems to be no class restrictions on armor or weapons in this game. The only restriction on weapons is you have to be a certain strength to use them. I am still looking for a way to increase my strength/stamina.

I am loving the idea that your guys can work in this game. While I waited for my armor to be made (6 days - another first, you can't just buy armor on the spot, they custom make it for each player and it takes time!) I had Dalin working his trade (metal smith) and earning me some huge coin while my wizards learned a ton of spells.

Bridge battles also bring in good money because whoever is guarding the bridge generally charges people to pass. I think it's funny that slimes and some of these other stranger monsters (Bargs?!) carry coins on them.

As stated previously, if nothing else this game certainly has a great deal of charm and difficulty to it. It may help get me thru the harsh Cleveland winter!

I'm having so many problems with gold (losing 1000 at gambling didn't help) that I'm thinking about heading back to the castle, temporarily assembling an all-working party, and putting them to work in Port Avur for about two weeks.

Also keep some money on hand while travelling. Wandering dwarves will sell gems that you can re-sell in town at a large profit. If you're need Port Avur and have a lot of gemes in your inventor its worth temporarily adding one of the character's who's a gem cutter to your party. If I recall correctly it adds %33 or so to the sell price.

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About Me

Chester Bolingbroke is a professional in his early 40s who really should be doing something more productive with his time. He lives in Maine with his patient wife, Irene, and when he isn't playing CRPGs, he enjoys traveling, crossword puzzles, and jazz.

The Rules

1. I am following a list of CRPGs in chronological order derived from several sources, including Wikipedia, MobyGames, GameFAQs, and contributions from readers. I am going in chronological order on two sections of the list: a) all RPGs in the 1990s, and b) non-PC RPGs that I missed during my first four years of blogging when I played only games released for DOS.

2. To appear on my play list, a game must be a a) single-player RPG released for a personal computer, and b) in a language that uses a Latin alphabet. Console games do not appear on my playlist unless they also had PC releases during their original release schedule (generally within 2 years of the console release). Exceptions made and ambiguity resolved at my discretion.

3. My definition of "RPG" requires the game to have three core criteria: 1) character leveling and development, 2) combats based at least partly on attribute-derived statistics, 3) inventories consisting of something other than just puzzle items. If I reach a game on my playlist and it lacks one of these items, I may mark it as "rejected" and skip it.

4. I can reject independent and shareware RPGs if they are clearly amateur efforts with no innovations or accolades attached to them.

5. I cannot use cheats. I cannot look at FAQs or walkthroughs until I have finished playing.

6. I don't have to win every game, but I must play for at least six hours.